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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  December 5, 2012 10:00am-11:00am PST

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right now on "andrea mitchell reports" line in the sand. president obama warns republicans not to create another debt ceiling crisis as a tactic in the budget talks. >> that is a bad strategy for america, it's a bad strategy for your businesses, and it is not a game that i will play. >> the speaker says the president's opening bid couldn't even pass the democratic led senate. boehner is ready for a sit down with the president. >> we can't sit here and negotiate with ourselves and if the president doesn't agree with our proposal and our outline, i think he's got an obligation to send one to the congress. and a plan that can pass both chambers of congress. >> a rare senate appearance, by former majority leader bob dole wasn't enough to win over republican support for a treaty
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promising equal rights for people with disabilities. we'll talk with the leading sponsor john kerry about what he called one of the sadsest days of his long senate career. >> this vote is to test whether the senate will stand up for those who cannot see or hear and whether senators can hear the truth and see the facts. >> at nato today, secretary of state hillary clinton bids farewell and voices a warning about securing syria's chemical weapons. >> our concerns that an increasingly desperate assad regime might turn to chemical weapons or might lose control of them to one of the many groups that are now operating within syria. >> and road to 2016, congressman paul ryan and senator marco rubio drop big hints at last night's dinner honoring jack kemp. >> you know any good diners in new hampshire or iowa, right?
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>> paul, thank you for your invitation for lunch in iowa and new hampshire, but i will not stand by and watch the people of south carolina ignored. ♪ >> and take five, to remember one of the greatest innovators jazz has known, composure dave brubeck, died a day short of his 92nd birthday. ♪ >> good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. we begin with the fallout from a senate vote that seemed to underscore everything that is wrong with capitol hill. the senate's rejection of an international treaty to guarantee equal rights for people with disabilities based on what has been american law since the first bush presidency 22 years ago. the treaty supported by every democrat and eight republicans, came five votes short of passage of the required 66 needed for
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ratification. 38 republicans voted no despite the return to the floor of former majority leader bob dole only days out of the hospital. there at the age of 89 to rally support from his former friends including orrin hatch, cluck grassley, mitch mcconnell and thad cochran but they voted it down. the floor manager john kerry called it one of the saddest days in his nearly 28 days in the senate which he says is broken and dysfunctional. the chairman of the foreign relations committee john kerry joins me now. thank you very much. you spoke of this passionately yesterday and you've had an overnight to think about this, but the moment was clearly so compelling watching bob dole on the floor, wheeled in by his wife, the former senator elizabeth dole and you and john mccain and other war veterans calling for passage of this, it tell me your thoughts today? >> my first thought, andrea,
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hate to say this i can't believe you're already talking about 2016. i'm sorry to change -- >> i'm sorry about that too. >> that threw me at the outset here. >> my apologies. >> that said, let me say to you, yesterday was exactly as i described it, just a very, very sad day for the senate. because fear triumphed and politics triumphed, not the legitimate concerns of americans with disabilities who want to travel abroad. i mean, the bottom line is not one american law is affected by this treaty. no one gets any new rights. no one would have access to an american court. there is nothing to fear in this treaty, but there are people who use the treaty to drum up the fear of primaries and politics and opposition and in the end, that combined with the letter that was written some weeks ago
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saying we won't do this in a lame duck, notwithstanding that we've passed 19 treaties in the past 30 years in lame ducks, here's the bottom line. this is about the service of americans, soldiers who want to travel abroad. we heard from captain now, dan burshinski, a west point graduate from -- fearful he would have to be carried into a hotel. didn't know if he could go to a restaurant. would they have a bath recommend for him that was handicapped accessible and so forth. these are simple things. this is the basis of what this treaty would have done, raised the standard in the rest of the world and made other countries
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much more accessible and lived up to a higher standard of treatment with people with disabilities. >> senator, do you think that this might have passed if the words united nations were not attached to it? talk to me about this fear of the u.n. angered the u.n., some appropriate, some not, the black helicopter deal? >> there's a lot of fear that the u.n. is somehow going to encroach on united states sovereignty and prerogatives. one of the things i thought was most sad about yesterday, was here's a veteran of world war ii, grievously wounded in the war, who spent a lifetime proving to americans that injuries didn't need to stop you from living a completely fulfilled and productive life, who had to fight like crazy to come back from those wounds, and he's on the floor, this man who defended american sovereignty, and yet people were there suggesting somehow he was there
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less than to defend america's sovereignty with this vote. to me that was such an amazing slap in the face and a contradiction. i think it's important not to go backwards. one of the lessons you learn here in the united states senate you live to vote another day. this treaty is not dead forever. it just stopped yesterday. we're going to bring this treaty back. we're going to bring it back next winter when we get back here. we'll do another set of hearings. we'll expose the phoniness of these arguments that have been made. and once we're out of the lame duck atmosphere with the fiscal crisis, i know there are republicans who have told me they will vote for this treaty. i think we just have to change the dynamics. i am perfectly prepared to put additional language into the resolution ratification that addresses any concern that was expressed yesterday on the floor. i'm convinced we can get there. and that's one of the things you
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need to do in the senate, is always believe in the next vote, the next possibilities, and not spend a lot of time opening raw wounds. >> i do want to ask you about syria because hillary clinton today in brussels expressed her concerns about the security of the chemical weapons and whether this regime is at a tipping point or close to a tipping point. the secretary general of the u.n. said today that he does not think that countries ought to offer exile to assad. where are we heading here? is the regime, first of all we understand that the u.s. is going to recognize the occupation -- opposition next week. is the regime close to teetering and do we have to worry about the chemical weapons? >> yes. the answer is secretary clinton is right on. we do have to worry about them. i had a briefing this morning regarding this. obviously i can't release any classified details, but sufficient to say that the threat is real. the warning is real. we have made it crystal clear,
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president obama, secretary clinton, be have made it absolutely clear as have other countries this is a red line and i believe president assad has received that message from several quarters. the question now is, you know, will someone else grab on to them? there's certainly risks where we are with respect to syria. i would not close the door completely to some kind of an agreement whereby president assad could move to another country and the reason i say that is, that the dangers of an imploding syria, of the complete implosion of the state, are really serious and contrary to the national security interests of the united states. it's in our security interests to be able to get a transition that is controlled and that is negotiated and that is orderly. the alternative to that is you
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could have 200,000, 500,000 people killed and so i do not want to lock myself into nor do i think our nation should lock ourselves into, a complete refusal to create the dynamic where we can avoid that kind of death and destruction and where we will not serve our greater national security interests. and therefore, i want to see us push rapidly towards the negotiation. i think it can happen. i also believe that assad's regime is in its final months. i don't know if it will be three or six. i can't it tell you the number. i know there has been an enormous amount of progress made by the syrian opposition and the free syrian army and i think we are looking at sort of the beginning of the end plays here. >> senator kerry, thank you very much. by the way, before i let you go, anything you want to share with us about your future or any other jobs that might be out there? >> i have a bunch of meetings this afternoon and i look
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forward to a terrific day. thank you. >> thank you. thanks for being with us. thanks for your leadership on the treaty for people with disabilities. and we look forward to talking to you. >> and now to our daily fix. it takes a lot to cut through the rhetoric and brinkmanship that has characterized this fight over the fiscal cliff but alan simpson managed to do it with a video promoting had is campaign to fix the debt. >> stop instagramming your breakfast and tweeting your problems and getting on youtube so you can see gangnam style. ♪ and start using those precious social media skills to go out and sign people up on this baby, three people a week, let it grow, and don't forget take part or get taken apart. by these old ones will clean out the treasury before you get
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there. ♪ >> [ inaudible ]. >> the lasso again and then the horseback. horse horse. the cowboys ride. >> it made my day. i had to share it with you. chris cizilla an msnbc contributor and managing editor of post politics.com and susan page, washington bureau chief for "usa today." hello. alan simpson never fails. >> i was instagraming, andrea. i was busy instagraming. >> chris, maybe this do broke through. put him on the road, have him go door to door. >> my favorite part of the video which i have watched approximately 1,000 times is when he says at the end, so another lasso then. >> and he is a man who knows his lassos. cody, wyoming. chris, where do we stand because we heard from john boehner he wants to meet with the president and none of the plans coming
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from the white house so far, the opening bid at least, would pass either house. the president went to the business roundtable and said, don't even think about using the debt ceiling. but he can't really control that, can he? >> no. not really. i still think we're in the positioning stage of this. president obama made very clear yesterday i think to the extent there's news that was made yesterday i think in the bloomberg interview where he reiterated the fact you can't simply get to the debt on the wealthiest americans. that is still the stopping point, the hurdle in this back and forth and, you know, john boehner for what republicans have given -- you've seen some breaks in the ranks, more than the democratic side, you've not seen really anyone with the exception of tom coburn from oklahoma say, okay, let's raise the rates, move forward.
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so we're still kind of at that impasse and that's not changed. >> and despite the fact that senator kerry was offended by our referring to 2016, i didn't do it, it was paul ryan and marco rubio. we're only here to report the news. when we talk about where the republican party is going to go, george w. bush speaking at the dallas fed last night about immigration. >> not only do immigrants help build our economy, they invigorate our soul. america can be a lawful society and a welcoming society at the same time. as our nation debates the proper course of action relating to immigration, i hope we do so with a benevolent spirit and keep in mind the contribution of immigrants. >> it's a very interesting reminder. jeb bush, of course, has been very outspoken but there is a different wing of the republican party. >> we george w. bush talk about
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taking a softer line on immigration the day after republicans in the senate refused to ratify a treaty on discrimination against disabled people. those are two different courses for the republican party and i see one thing that strikes me, you have george w. bush here, robert dole, another former presidential nominee on the floor of the state. the party is moving on. these are not the most powerful voices in the party. the speeches we heard yesterday from marco rubio and paul ryan are i think more influential when trying to look at where is the republican party going to go. >> and, in fact, paul ryan here's another little bit of paul ryan speaking at that jack kemp forum, speaking of former presidential candidates the lake jack kemp. >> though i wish this election turned out a little differently, i'm proud of the campaign that mitt romney and i ran. losing is part of politics. and it can often prepare the way for greater victories. >> speaking of greater victories, at the latest
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"washington post"/abc poll on hillary clinton, chris cizilla indicates strong support for hillary clinton. she has really i guess she's the most popular figure in american politics. >> she is at her highest popularity rating that we have ever in "the washington post"/abc poll measured her and almost six in ten, 57% of americans, this isn't democrats, this is the american public broadly, want her to run for president in 2016. now, i would say, if she becomes a candidate, i think -- inevitably she'll be seen much more in that partisan atmosphere, some of her stratospheric numbers will drop down. i would say she has been skeptical very skeptical of running. if you look at these numbers if you have any interest of being the president of the united states this may be a hard race to say no to. >> i think the rest of the political world knows what is likely to happen. chris cizilla, thank you very much. susan page, always great to see
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you. >> coming up the fiscal fight continuing. he split with his party on taxes. what is republican tomb cole saying now? first as john boehner look lights the capitol christmas tree is he channeling tiny tim or scrooge. >> god bless us and everyone and from my family to yours, merry christmas. en i was in an accide. i was worried the health care system spoke a language all its own with unitedhealthcare, i got help that fit my life. information on my phone. connection to doctors who get where i'm from. and tools to estimate what my care may cost. so i never missed a beat. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.
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revenues we're putting on the table will come from, guess who? the rich. there are ways to limit deductions, close loopholes, and have the same people pay more of their money to the federal government without raising tax rates which we believe will harm our economy. >> let's allow higher rates to go up for the top 2%, that
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includes all of you, yes, but not in any way that's going to affect your spending, your lifestyles, or the economy in any significant way. let's make sure that 9 % of americans -- 98% of americans don't see a single dime in tax increases next year. >> house speaker john boehner is not ready to make a deal, but some members of his caucus think it's time to start talking about getting past the tax debate. oklahoma republican tom coles is one and joins me now. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> is there a way to move the tax debate forward to start talking about the spending cuts you want to see locked in? isn't the tax debate now blocking progress towards the larger issue which is getting -- attacking the deficit with real spending cuts? >> i think there is, but let me make very apparent i think the speaker is right. i think the proposal he's put on the table is a great proposal that we ought to not raise
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rates. there's other ways to get revenue that honestly are more economically productive in the long term. having said that, again, i think you might be better served to do this in pieces. first, we disagree with the democrats on a lot of things but we don't disagree about the 98% of the american people. we don't think their taxes should go up. to me since that's a point of agreement and doesn't affect either side's negotiating position on the other issues we ought to remove it from the table. make sure most americans don't have to worry about their taxes going up. having said that, again, i think the speaker's right on in terms of the proposal he's put out there. most importantly, he couples it with something the president doesn't, which is really significant spending cuts and entitlepment reform. but if we solve the tax problem for 98 ps% of the american people, continue to fight for the other 2%, to not raise rates, that seems to me we move closer it toward that spending and entitlement debate and i think that's something that the president and the democrats in
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general are trying to avoid. >> senator, tom coburn was on "morning joe" alongside you today and he has -- he's willing to make a deal that does involve the higher rates for the wealthy. why not go there? the president has made it clear it just is not enough money in the tax reform and eliminating deductions to get to a big enough number for a balanced approach in his view. >> there's not enough money frankly from the president's approach to get to where we need to go not in terms of revenues but spending cuts and entitlement reform. i don't think we have to surrender our position. what some people fail to grasp is taxes on all americans are scheduled to go up on december 31sst. that can't possibly be a good thing. not as if digging in and holding ground means we can stop a tax increase. we have to do something that's proactive to prevent that tax increase. again, i would prefer tax increases on no one but since democrats don't agree to that
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right now, they certainly agree we're 98%. take them at their word and get that part of the problem taken care of. that's 80% of the bush tax cuts for 98% of the people made permanent. that's something we weren't able to accomplish when george bush was president. sometimes, you know, you ought to look at a win as a win. that's a win. we can continue to fight as the speaker appropriately suggests at the upper level and say look, we can find the revenue without raising rates. i think he's absolutely correct when he says that. >> is this a giant game of chicken to see whether the white house will finally get specific, more specific, on spending cuts before -- >> i think certainly -- >> house republicans will agree to rates? >> it's a negotiation and i think there's no question about that. look, i look at the two positions and i saw some encouraging things. i saw the president at least put some entitlement reform, $350 billion on the table. the speaker i think has more than negotiated had in good faith by putting revenue on the
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table and spelling out how he wanted to get it. now i think the president has to come a lot further in the spending thing. i think he ought to at least look at the speaker's idea in terms of no rate increase but revenue through tax reform. i think that's a smart way to go and ultimately generate faster growth, more jobs, better opportunities for the american people. >> now, we've just been told by jay carney the white house has asked the office of management and budget to start making plans for sequestration, which is of course the automatic cuts that nobody wants to see and principlely those cuts in defense will be very, very onerous according to the pentagon and everybody else. do you think that this is a feint or what they need to do just because it takes a while to get these things in order? >> well, you know, i'll leave it to them to decide whether it's a feint but it's dangerous. the defense cuts are devastating, they shouldn't happen, and by the way, they'll be a domestic cuts of comparable
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quality. actually that's really the republican leverage in the debate, not the tax issue but the spending cuts if we dealt with the tax cuts for 98%, spending cuts would still be there, still have the leverage we need. but look, probably the white house is being prudent. but this is serious. there's a strong disagreement but in the end the two sides have been able to negotiate in the past, speaker boehner's very good negotiator, negotiating the extension of the bush tax cuts two years ago, budget deal in 2011, debt ceiling deal in august of 2011, all those things have led to prosperity or -- faster growth and less spending. i think we should continue to work with him. let's take the american people out of the line of fire, particularly that 9 %. >> -- 98 %. >> quickly, congressman the president said today he will not play the debt ceiling game again, not permit another false crisis that could really trigger an economic downturn. >> he's the president, not the
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emperor. he does not have the power of the purse and he will never get ever the ability to -- of one person to put the country into debt as much as they want to. i wouldn't trust ronald reagan with that, i'm not going to trust barack obama with that. that is an absolute nonstarter. frankly i would think many of my democratic friends would be uncomfortable about investing any single person with that kind of power. >> thank you very much. congressman tom cole. >> thank you. >> up next, former treasury official roger altman who says he has the fix for the cliff. could he be playing a larger role soon? this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. with the spark miles card from capital one, thor gets great rewards for his small business! your boa! [ garth ] thor's small business earns double miles on every purchase, every day! ahh, the new fabrics. put it on my spark card. ow. [ garth ] why settle for less? the spiked heels are working. wait! [ garth ] great businesses deserve great rewards.
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first of all -- >> hi andrea. same here. >> could you respond to what congressman cole just said about being able to fix the tax, you know, burden by just addressing -- >> i like -- >> smoothing out and -- >> i like some of the things -- >> can you do it without rates? >> i think the answer is simply no. no, you cannot do it without rates and let's just put this in context. first of all, this was debated every single day during the presidential campaign, this issue of how much revenue you can raise reforming deductions. and the answer is, unless you're prepared to take it out of the middle class which neither parts want to do you can't raise enough revenue without raising rates. so, for example, the republicans have proposed $800 billion in revenue increases over ten years. first of all i don't think that's enough, but you can't raise $800 billion by reforming
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deductions and not raising rates without taking a lot of it from the middle class. there are tax policy center analysis, just before the election, which is an independent one, thorough one, made that clear. and so it's just not the case. and if republicans think the way to do it is to have the middle class pay a lot of the increases, they should come out and say so. i think the answer to the question is no. >> what the president said today at the business round table it's not realistic to think you're going to eliminate the charitable deduction to the point you can come up with these dollars. do you agree with that and, obviously, the mortgage home deduction as well? >> i don't think you can eliminate those. there are a lot of proposals out there like the one -- >> to cap them. >> a group which would reform them. but i think one of the interesting things about the president going to the business roundtable and all these meetings with ceos he's been having, there's quite a bit of
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daylight so to speak between where the business community is and where the republicans are. most of the ceos who have been meeting with the president to the best of my knowledge, are saying essentially, we want a solution to this problem, this is a time now, okay with rates going up moderately, provided that the spending side or spending cut side is aggressive and the package is big enough. but the business community is indicating flexibility on the issue of higher rates and distancing itself, this is important, distancing itself from the house republicans on that point. >> now, larry [ inaudible ] said he wants to stay where he is and he is not open to being treasury secretary. are you open to a bid from washington to come back here? >> well, andrea, i just don't think that's going to happen. yes, i've always believed in service. you and i know each other well. i think you know that. but that i think is most unlikely.
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>> well, we'll have to see what the president decides. thank you very much, roger. thanks for being with us today. >> always a pleasure. thank you. >> up next, pain at the pump. senator maria can'twell wants to know what's going on with the record high gas prices out west. "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. od fats. avoid bad. don't go over 2000... 1200 calories a day. carbs are bad. carbs are good. the story keeps changing. so i'm not listening... to anyone but myself. i know better nutrition when i see it: great grains. great grains cereal starts whole and stays whole. see the seam? more processed flakes look nothing like natural grains. you can't argue with nutrition you can see. great grains. search great grains and see for yourself. for multi grain flakes that are an excellent source of fiber try great grains banana nut crunch and cranberry almond crunch.
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after 9:00 would be suitable because the doctor will be in in the morning and we'll just be getting her freshened up in the morning. i would think any time after 9:00. >> the head of the hospital has now responded saying that the prank call was a pretty poor trick to play. indeed. he also said the hospital nurses are professionals who should not have to deal with, quote, journalistic trickery. unbelievable. half a dozen u.s. senators are calling on the justice department to investigate sudden spikes in gas prices. the senators suspect false reporting by oil refineries may have contributed to near record gas prices in may and october. washington state senator maria cantwell among those senators calling for the probe. thanks so much for joining us. senator cantwell, what makes you think that something is going on that there has been some manipulation here? >> well, andrea, everybody believes you should have transparency in our oil markets to make sure consumers are protected and so when a report came out just recently that showed that some refineries who
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said they were down for maintenance and thereby causing a shortage in the marketplace may not really have been down at all. in fact, emissions data shows they were producing. we want department of justice to investigate this report. we want them to be aggressive and protect consumers because these price spikes that go up 50 cents in a day is not what helps our economy. >> and what are you hearing from the justice department? >> well, they have said that they're going -- they're looking at this report. sometimes the department of justice investigates without fully telling you because they want to do an agregressive job the investigation. we want a signal this kind of reporting and activity is something that both the federal trade commission and department of justice is going to take seriously. we know that if you would police this information and reporting requirements by the energy information agency, that we could have a better analysis of what is causing undue spikes in the market. we have a lot of analysis that
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shows that it is not supply and demand. so, when it's something as critical as the price of gasoline, you know, there's more regulation on commodities like hamburger than there is right now on gasoline. and i can tell you gasoline is a lot more important to an economy than the kinds of transparencies that we have in the commodities market. >> now there was at one point i think one or more refinery fires and that was one explanation given at a certain stage and also the seasonal adjustments when they are switching over from home heating to gasoline. but you don't think that any of those factors are what really caused these spikes some. >> well, what happened is one refinery had a fire. that was in the state of washington. and when prices almost went to $5, people were saying, how does one refinery cause that kind of spike? and all the other refineries responded with various piece of information saying that they actually were down for maintenance or that there was supply out of the market because
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of all of these issues so they were basically saying there was less supply and that's why the price went up. but this report demonstrates and this what is we want investigated to find out whether it's factual, is that might have been an artificial shortage. they created a perception of a shortage in the marketplace when there really wasn't one and i can tell you this, andrea, from all the work that we've done with enron and on derivatives in general, the simplest scheme to perpetrate is a false sense of a shortage and driving up the price. and we want our department of justice and the federal trade commission to be very, very aggressive against these kinds of schemes. >> senator cantwell, thank you very much. thanks for joining us today. >> thank you. >> up next, a story of love and anarchy, author karen on her book "sasha and emma." this is "andrea mitchell reports only on msnbc. i have a cold... i took dayquil, but i still have a runny nose.
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the perpetrator of what historians call the first terrorist act is of a new biography "sasha and emma." they were considered the pate yashgs of the an narcist movement. the narrative is woven together by karen averich and her father. karen joins me now. this was a labor of love in every respect. tell me about the genesis of this. your father the historian had worked on this many years and then really as he was dying asked you to take it on. >> yes. he was a professor of russian history and an arcism, an arcism his passion, and spent many decades interviewing those that had been active in the 20th century, collecting their letters and photographs and written a number of books about the subject. it was always about sasha and emma he wanted to write. they were compelling to him. when he got hill he asked me to take over the project and asked me to finish it. he died in 2006 and i took on his letters and drafts and tried
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to put it together. >> was that a very large emotional burden? i mean how do you cope with you have grief, you have memory loss and also this enormous project? >> oh, yes. it was difficult. i felt this pressure both because of his great legacy and the death of making sure this book was finish and finished well. and initially it seemed like an enormous project. you know, i had masses of notes to work with and then as i got more and more just in the story, i heard my father's voice but i started to hear sasha and emma's voices as well. the story sort of picked me up and helped carry me along. >> from such a bygone era, but emma golden is so modern. talk about her role as a leader and sort of an icon even for those that don't agree perhaps with her politics but she broke
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all sorts of barriers for women. >> she did. her view was that she came to america as an immigrant. she was initially dissolutioned by the way that immigrants and the poor were treated. she tried to advocate for social justice 37. she considered herself an american patriot. fought for freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, women's rights, the rights of homosexuals. she was very modern and it was -- this was important to her. she felt america could be the best america could be. >> and sasha berkman, very complex, i mean basically a terrorist. >> yes. he considered himself a terrorist, although i found it ironic when he moved away from violence, he was much more effective because he was a very good speaker and writer as well. wonderful organizer. but when he was 21 he was anxious to commit a grand deed like the ones you saw in russia when he was a child and he decided that the industrials henry clay frick was the czar of the america, the equivalent of the symbolist of capitalist
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evil. if he could assassinate this man he could inspire the workers to revolt. he killed his victim that survived the attack. >> he was jailed. >> he was in prison for 14 years. >> they had a partnership, at times romantic, at other times a literary partnership, political partnership. this relationship lasted for decades. >> it is an extraordinary thing. they were soulmates. they start out as, you know, teenagers, lovers. and then they just became friends and comrades and as you said, it sort of intellectual partners. this relationship lasted 50 years from america to the soviet union, through europe. through his imprisonment and her traveling around the country. yet, they would try to explain to each other, they had other lovers, she was married and yet it was always that relationship, their friends would say there's really nothing like it. you can't come between it. >> the heart of this remarkable story, a passage for you and for, of course, your father and everything that he contributed over all of those years and
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congratulations. rave reviews from the "new york times." >> thank you. >> this is a very big deal. >> thank you so much. >> we will be right back. veteran former congressman jack brooks has died. he represented southeast texas for 42 years. he died tuesday night at the age of 89. brooks was in the dallas motorcade when john f. kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and can be seen on air force one standing behind jackie kennedy when lyndon johnson took the oath of office later that day. he was one of the last holdouts of an era when democrats dominated texas politics. brooks supported civil rights and refused to sign the segregation southern manifesto in 1956 and went on to right the civil rights act of 1964. wasn't my daughter's black bean soup spectacular?
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and which political story will make head leans in 24 hours contributor and manager editor,
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chris cizzilis rejoins us. when do you think they get down to seriously talking and you keep hearing that there's some optimism here of people who are really smart players. it's hard to find the signs of it. >> well, andrea, i would predict they won't in 24 hours. look. i do think -- i think the reason for optimism that you hear is because people don't believe politicians will willingly put themselves in a situation of tremendous uncertainty. that is, going over the cliff. no one knows what would happen. we all think, oh, there's economists saying it would be really bad or not that bad. but politicians tend not to like uncertainty. i think so you have that. i think the other thing you have by way of context is there are cracks showing in the republican framework. tom coburn today saying he would rather raise rates on the wealthy than cap deductions. tom cole, who has been on your
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show many times, talking about let's just pass the 98% of the tax cut that is are noncontroversial and extend those and worry about 2% later and i think democrats look and say, well, the republican -- this is not a totally uniformed front and there's cracking and will get bigger closer to the cliff so i think that's why there's optimism but i don't think this week or next week major movement toward a deal. >> passing the 98% would take away democratic leverage. >> right. >> their only leverage to try to get the higher rates for the wealthy is to use that middle class tax cut as the bait. >> right. to say that, well, okay, if we don't do this everyone will get the taxes increased. do you want your name on that? i agree. look. i tend to believe, andrea, i watched enough of these and debt ceiling debacle/debate is they
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tend to make a deal. not ever pretty or early but they tend to make deals in the town. i tend to think that's where it's headed but that's less based on what we're seeing on the ground and more based on if you look at the historical pattern of how the big intractable things are addressed. it tends to be at the last minute. kind of in a deal no one's particularly happy with. i don't know if we're headed there but my gut says we probably are. >> of course, the white house thinks they have got the polling on their side. >> and they do. and they do. >> exhibiting some nervousness of the bargaining position here. >> no question. and that's -- but i would argue that suggests a deal. if republicans do not want to go over the cliff, andrea, they find a way to make a deal and i don't think they want to go over the cliff. >> well, we don't want to go over the cliff at the end of the show here so that disease it oe
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edition. tamron hall has a look at what's next. >> andrea, if you go over the cliff i'm here to catch you. >> thank you. need that. >> thank you. following the latest on the fiscal cliff fiasco. congress is facing the issue of the fiscal cliff and other tough economic decisions. why did just today republican leadership cancel tomorrow's session allowing the house to leave town with three days left on the legislative calendar? i'll talk with two democratic members of congress just and allyson schwartz and john yarmuth. i'll talk to roger simon. he has a scathing new column out on republicans. roger says, quote, listen to this, republicans have found their stab in the back. it was the minorities what done them in. that's what he wrote. we'll ask him about it. ♪
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i'd like to thank eating right,
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